


when love's hour begins, the moon and the sun are the same.

by crystallinedewdrops



Category: DCU, The Authority
Genre: Fluff, Kind of..., M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, and then it gets hella sappy., character introspection, i wont spoil anything but yeah theres a little bit of, midnighter & apollo are black and brown respectively because i said so.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:07:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25007425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystallinedewdrops/pseuds/crystallinedewdrops
Summary: melancholy & longing for peace and a life to live instead of just survive, companionable silences where you don't need to speak to each other because you're that comfortable around one another, and a spontaneous global trip with your lover.
Relationships: Apollo/Midnighter
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	when love's hour begins, the moon and the sun are the same.

**Author's Note:**

> this is. hastily written because the minute I got the motivation I just sat down and wrote this so excuse me if... none of it makes any sense whatsoever. 
> 
> once again, this fic is just a bunch of disconnected snapshots of m's & apollo's lives when they were on the run and before they joined the authority.
> 
> title taken from ‘transformations of the lover’, The pages of day and night (translated by samuel hazo).

Being spontaneous is not something they can afford to have in this life, Apollo wishes it wasn't the case; he has seen how spontaneity can brighten someone's life and he wants to have that in his, he wants to know how it feels to just let go.

He doesn't know how long he's been flying over the clouds, hiding in abandoned places or in barns and leaving only before the farmers wake up, stopping in cities to make a dent at the crime rate and then leaving right afterwards; always moving and never staying in one place. Days blur together when you're on the run from a madman.

They've stopped at a river to wash up, now. Apollo is lying on his back in the water and staring at the clouds above him; he had noticed how remote this place is, how it looks like an abandoned fishing village from some past decades or centuries, with most of the buildings destroyed. Everything is muted, here. Silent and stuck in time. There is a wooden port and Midnighter is sitting on it.

They don't speak. Apollo stays in the water until the clouds dissipate, the sun falls, and the stars come out. His skin doesn't prune and wrinkle from spending too much time lying on his back in the river.

You can see them so clearly this far away from any city, and he pretends he's alone with only the luminous, starry sky above him for company, the lights reflected in the water; it's such an easy thing to do, too—pretend that you have a life, that you can do whatever you want with your life.

So Apollo lets his mind wander away, swimming in a river of stars.

//

The street-lights reflect off the water puddles on the ground outside, they are reflected off Midnighter's black trenchcoat as they walk into the diner.

It's only nine at night and there is a light drizzle, barely enough to make his hair wet. As they sit down in one of the tables and making a decision on what to order, Apollo smiles apologetically at the waitress, seeing as they did drag in some of the water from outside.

The waitress just sighs, gets their orders, and leaves them be.

Apollo and Midnighter did not take their costumes off but at least they cleaned up the blood, or at least tried to; it's hard to wash off. Apollo doesn't let his mind focus on the old blood splatter on his dirty, off-white gloves.

They sit and eat their food in companionable silence as, outside the diner, the drizzle becomes heavy rain. This is the little bit of peace and quiet in their lives, so they savor it.

By the time all the people in the diner leave and it's about to close, Apollo stands up and goes to help in the kitchen and does not stop even when the staff protests because he is a customer. He just smiles good-naturedly and tells them that since he cannot pay for the meal, he might as well clean up the diner as a way to make up for it.

Maybe it's because of the late hour or that they are tired or maybe both, but they let him do it as long as he comes back with money next time.

He cannot see it but he's pretty sure that, beneath the cowl, Midnighter's eyebrows reached his hairline when he saw Apollo stack up the chairs on the tables. He just shrugged as a reply to the clear but unasked question etched on M's face. The man leaves the diner and waits outside under the awning until Apollo is done.

//

They make it a rule that they will never stop at quiet, small towns unless they absolutely have to. (how can anyone say that nothing happens in these kinds of places when, town after town, they are the witnesses of the most horrific of acts.)

//

There is blood on his clothes and face. He is watching as Midnighter interrogates the man they are after.

He looks around the area where there are multiple bodies in various states of death and decides that, in case some higher ups send someone to investigate there should be no evidence of a crime.

so Apollo burns the bodies and bones to literal ashes. leave nothing behind that could, potentially, lead back to them.

//

There is a weight on his chest and a weird noise reverberating all around him, Apollo opens his eyes and finds Midnighter sitting stock-still with a lump of… is that fur?

Apollo glances at the source of the weird noise and finds it's coming from the street cat on his chest, with filth and injuries all over. There is a feeling that blooms inside his chest at the passing thought that this cat felt safe enough to let its guard down and sleep around— _ on— _ him.

The feeling grows and overwhelms him, and he closes his eyes in the vain hope of stopping the tears from spilling forth.

After that, they make it a personal mission to take every stray animal to a shelter that will take care of them better than two men on the run could.

//

After Christina Trelane and Jackson King made them officially retired members of the organization, they gave them an apartment and new identities. Apollo won't look a gift horse in the mouth. The new identities were a bit hard to get used to specially because they forget to call each other anything but "Apollo" and "Midnighter", even around strangers.

The neighborhood is nice and it's not suburban too. It's not quiet by any means but the people in their apartment building just mind their business and don't ask any questions or look at them in a strange way when Apollo and-or Midnighter come home late with questionable splatters on their costumes.

They had not given up their habits of punching bad people, even in this new life.

Apollo ends up buying a lot of plants—not the plastic ones, he hates those; he has grown quite attached to the idea that he can make flowers bloom and flourish just by standing next to them, so he gets a couple of plants that are easy to maintain as a start. Then he gets flowers but not orchids since, rather amusingly, Midnighter is allergic to orchids. It's something he loves to tease the other about.

Midnighter, on his part, takes up sewing. Apollo, once, arrived home from the grocery and saw one of their neighbors standing on their doorsteps with a plastic bag full of clothes and M talking to them about payment. When Apollo asked him about it later he just shrugged and said they needed the money for all the food Apollo keeps making and giving away to the homeless shelters.

He knows it's more than that the same way it's more than just taking care of plants for Apollo, but he doesn't push. He doesn't tease. He knows more than anyone how much this means—having a new life, somewhere to truly belong, helping people in small ways—to Midnighter.

So they are now living instead of surviving.

Apollo looks up from the little garden he had grown on the balcony at the sky and there is a pang in his chest when He doesn't see the stars because of the city lights. he lets his gaze fall, sighs, and goes inside the apartment.

Then an idea comes to him and he smiles, goes to the living room where M is, weaving the needle to and fro through the fabric. "We should go on a road trip," apollo announces his presence with that, and M stops what he's doing and looks at him with a puzzled expression on his face.

"Why?" he asks and Apollo flips over the back of the couch—where he was standing—and lands next to him. "It'd be fun. we can stay in other cities, go sightseeing, and all of that," he replies with a shrug and a smile that widens at M's raised eyebrow.

"You want to be a tourist?"

"...yeah, pretty much. I suppose we can also go to other countries. I'd like to see Scotland."

"That's not what a road trip is." There is a hint of smile on Midnighter's face as he says this, and that makes Apollo feel like his breath is caught in his lungs.

He moves his shoulders up and down in a shrug, again. Midnighter sighs, "and who is going to take care of your plants?"

Apollo glances at the mentioned fauna and hums in mock-thought, "we can take them with us," and the snort and barely repressed laugh he gets as a reaction is worth it. His response wasn't exactly the wittiest or even funniest but it still made M laugh so it doesn't matter.

He can hear the fondness in m's voice as he says, "you—why am I with you?"

He puts his arm around his boyfriend's shoulders and kisses his cheek, "you love me."

Midnighter turns his head and kisses him, and it’s sweet.

"Fine. Let's go on a road trip and be tourists."

So they go on the barely-planned tour trip. So they live spontaneously for the first time in their lives. Midnighter had taken so many photos of them with the polaroid camera they bought.

It's the happiest they have ever been.

(they hang the photos all over the apartment.)


End file.
